Houston Heats Up: Eight Semifinalists Announced for the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards

Tyson Cole was noted for his work at both the Houston and Austin locations of Uchi.

Fleshing out the Houston semifinalist nominations were Anvil Bar & Refuge for Outstanding Bar Program and Tyson Cole for his work at both the Houston and Austin locations of Uchi. Cole is a semifinalist in the Outstanding Chef category.

Alongside Ortega and Shepherd in the Best Chef: Southwest category were fellow semifinalists Jason Maddy of Oak in Dallas, Teiichi Sakuri of Tei An in Dallas, David Gilbert of Sustenio at Éilan Hotel Resort & Spa in San Antonio, Michael Sohocki of Restaurant Gwendolyn in San Antonio, Armando Pomales of Café Central in El Paso, Maiya Keck of Maiya's in Marfa, Rene Ortiz of La Condesa in Austin and Bryce Gilmore, once again.

"You can really see that Houston is kind of really on its way now," said Shepherd of the city's serial semifinalists. "And it's really good to see that." Quickly, he added with a chuckle: "Not that it hasn't been before -- but you start to see us being up for multiple nominations, and it's cool to see that."

"You know how I feel about this city and how great it is," Shepherd said. "It's always been either Dallas or Austin, but now it's our time."

The finalists for the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced on Monday, March 18. The awards themselves will be presented in New York City on Monday, May 6.

Wait, don't tell me, are you saying that only our chefs were nominated, and not our food writers? We have some real luminaries here wielding a pen: Marene Gustin, Taylor Byrne Dodge, Robin Barr Sussman, Whitney Radley, to name but a few.

And I would add to that exulted list one Eric Sandler; when he's at
the top of his game, the man approaches a press release much like
Michelangelo would a solid block of marble, coaxing from it both nuance
and fullness, crafting it into a masterwork that you will read and
reread with pleasure.

(that IS kinda funny...I noticed the same thing on Eater. One commenter even notes that yeah, Eater is an aggregator, but aggregating press releases might be pushing the envelope just a bit). On the other hand, we could give a nod to Eric for transparency.